Oct 11 Letters to the Editor

DIANNE GRANT: Agreed. Plus, why should there be additional tax on spirits? If the state of Maine, as I see it, had better debt-to-income planning and accounting, then, taxpayers would not be slammed with another tax to support the state's shortcomings and mismanagement of its income.

ANN LANE: Sometimes, and most often injustices are done to the innocent. Your situation is almost critical, and doesn't it seem odd that every time there is a raise in pay for minimum wages, the cost of goods sold and the costs of services also increase as a result? Then, once again, things are just the same as they were before? The unions are fantastic for lobbying for minimum wage increases, etc; and this is another reason why the state (of Maine) is forced to keep the criterias at levels that do not help those in need at all. I pray for the best for you, dear, but I wished I was the richest guy in the world to send you a million dollars under the table to help you...secretely.

CHANDLER S. WOODMAN: "Only the Shadow Knows". God, too. Obama is spending almost four times for campaign advertisement alone than John McCain. Obama has tons of political answering to do for his "associations" and fabrications to the American public. Obviously, the people of America are split on their political opinions...even me, I'am getting broadsided with nasty comments and idiotic, elementary postings, mentioning my side. I don't mind, cause these folks are getting it right back in return. That's not important, however, because in the end, it will not matter anyhow. No matter who we elect, it is going to be an international, financial, political and national mess for the USA to get out of this "horse squeeze" (thanks, Mr. Nixxon), we are into eyeball-deep already. It's going to take years to fix this...and it will be done internationally...not nationally in the US. Thanks for your support of McCain...he is the lesser of the two evils.

Chandler Woodman........................Obama's socialism???????????

WHERE,in the name of HArry, does this FEAR OF SOCIALISM?COMMUNISM come from? WHO incited it?

The Bush Admnistration =( Repub. small government) has spent money like drunken sailors for 8 years............

ENTITLEMENTS..........Is Israel REALLY entitled to $ 3 BIL. of YOUR/MY tax money EVERY year?

Pakistan (WHILEPakistani Kahn, was selling nuclear componants to N Korea, Iran..other countires NOT in OUR interest.)

Georgia, Columbia, Egypt, AND other countires I don't even know about .

Blackwater Contractors earning $1,000. per day in an ILLEGAL UNNESCESSARY WAR.................

HUMMERS that get 10 mi per gal......................

Haliburton, to cinstruct quarters that electrocute OUR TROOPS in the showers and poisen them with unclorinted drinking water..........

Osama bin Laden, Saddam Housein, Ahmed Chalabi, on the CIA payroll for years.............

Yeah! Those unwed welfare Mothers are a real drain on a our system.!.................

Put the small farmers out of business, because the factory farms are SO MUCH more productive..It only costs about $1,700 to ship a truckload of lettice from California to Maine!

Yes indeed EVERY MAN IS AN ISLAND. self sufficient and responsible for his OWN LIFE! I'm so lucky to be able to do things well.I can garden. build my own closets, bake my own bread.................And for all this wonderful talent.I am getting paid $5.15 to exhist by the generous welfare govt we have.......... ( That I have paid money into for 50 years)...............

The original meaning of The Commons, ( where the livestock grazed, communally ) commenwealth, Commen Wealth ( communism) was to pool together resources for the common good to improve the QUALITY of LIFE FOR ALL! The best baker makes the bread, the best teacher teaches the children,,,,,,etc.! Nowadays..the bread is NOT baked the BEST, just the most profitable.............Doesn't matter to Freighoffers, Arnold, Coutry Made etc.that the high fructose corn syrup they bake into their bread causes diabetes..................They are making their money!

So I am making my own bread instead of making ART, MY BEST TALENT for 45 years..............20 years ago I could TRUST the bread making to someone else...............

If that is what you consider socialism, we had better go there for our own good !

.

RE: Obama's Socialism: Actually, our great country was built on the hard work of slaves and the free enterprise of their owners. Except that the slaves are now called day laborers and the owners capitalists, not much has changed.

Chandler S. Woodman's comment "Our great country was built on hard work and the free enterprise system. Let’s hope the voters in November recognize this continued shift to the left and put an end to it." would be funny if it weren't so stupid. TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT THE FREE MARKETS HAVE BEGOTTEN ON WALL ST!!!!! Do people like Woodman not read?

Chemaine, the free market did not cause the current crisis. It was greedy politicians who stuck a wrench in the system buy forcing lenders to grant risky loans.

Why connect Obama with slaves? Obama has no relatives in his past who were slaves. He just is dark-skinned and is that people\s version in Maine (some) that just because someone has dark skin, then they belong to the total, whole and complete Negro family? Not necessarily true.

ckc1996 Granted The Clinton Addmin. wanted loans to be easier for lower middle class people to get loans it didn't want the banks to write loads that couldn't be paid back....the banks fudged the numbers and manipulated people into thinking they were getting fixed rate loans....with a low interest....then after 2 years or so the rate would jump to and outragous rate....I've know of peoples payments going up over 500.00 in 1 month...and the mostly interest that goes to the bank...that has nothing to with good loaning partices and everything to with greed.

"searoses"...I have a story. I bought this nice two-story, English Tudor home at 19506 Teller Boulevard, in Spring, Texas about 1981. Spring, is actually another added-in area to Houston, up I-45, northbound. The subdivision was Devonshire Woods and Enchanted Oaks. I was the President of the entire subdivision then, of 900 homes. But what happened to me, I learned a lesson...the bank granted me a loan on-the-spot for the home. It was a new house. I told them I just bought for cash, complete rooms of Ethan Allen furniture for the home, and they agreed that I would be in the home before the day ended. I was. Contracts were signed, and I was told that I had a fixed-rate mortgage. In 6 months, my mortgage rose $300.00. Next two months after that, another $200.00. 6 months later...another $500.00! Then it stopped. Leveled out at about $1,650.00 monthly payment. In 1982, that was a significant payment to make. I went to the bank every time the rates jumped. I could not get to see anyone, because they were "out" or were "busy at that time". I could afford the cost jumps, but the point was, it made me so angry that the contract was "adjusted"...and the bank did not even give me, along with the original contract package, this addendum, which I should have received...and did not sign. I sued the bank. I won. I just put the overage in pay back into the payment schedule, and that was that. But banks began to screw the public all along, it seems. I never had banking issues since then, but it was a lesson learned. By the way...best of luck to you, dear.

Johninphilipines and Searoses you are right. The housing crisis is not caused by deadbeat homeowners who refuse to pay or can't pay but a byproduct of agressive and decietful credit practices by the banking industry. Now they are trying to put the blame where it doesn't belong, on the homeowner. It is the American dream to be able to own your own home and when you see all the new homes in your community and ask around about how folks you never thought could afford them came by the money you will naturally head to the lender who will tell you "sure you can afford it" just sign here on the dotted line. Then he goes to collect his bonus not caring if you default or not. His money is already in his pocket. Eventually the chickens come home to roost. You lose your home and your credit rating goes down the tubes. The lenders get bailed out by the government at your expense. You just exchanged your thirty year morgage payment for a three generation motgage payment at a lower cost. But now you are out of your home and so are your childrens children. Now we have bailed them out. Capitalism at work? Or socialism run amuck? The argument can be made for both. Whoever gets into the whitehouse next must re-regulate the banking and loan industry since we have already bailed them out instead of letting them go down the tubes like in the great depression. Who can do that best? That is the question and damned if I have the answers. I will vote for Obama in the hope that a change in political parties will affect a change policy. The man on the throne is not the one that matters most it is who is whispering in his ear.

Vote For Hope, Not Hatred

The ugly and hate-filled responses to the McCain/Palin campaign tactics should be a warning to all of us that voting for John McCain is a vote for hatred. We have seen Sarah Palin incite unbalanced lunatics to nearly riot at her rallies. John McCain was confronted and ultimately booed by his own supporters, on TV last week, when he unenthusiastically tried to deny that Barack Obama was a foreign terrorist.

We should not be the kind of people who cheered at the Palin rally in Florida, where the uniformed sheriff used Senator Obama’s middle name as a code word to enrage a crowd. That was reminiscent of the Nazi rallies in Hitler’s Germany.

Barack Obama represents hope and compassion. The Democratic rally for Senator Obama in Bangor last winter had all of us waiting in long, cold lines for hours and you never heard one angry word - not even from my kids. Everyone was excited, inspired - hopeful. I was so proud to be an Obama supporter, a Mainer, an American. I doubt those uplifting emotions are felt by the folks at McCain/Palin events. They are too consumed with suspicion and hatred.

I will vote for Barack Obama because I choose hope. I want a future for my country and my children filled with the wonderful things that hope will bring.

Lara Ashouwak

Bowdoinham, ME

"Imashouwak"...every one of those folks who will be voting in about 24 days from now, will naturally be casting their votes for the person they feel best qualified to run this country. As this seems to be an understatement, it is. What the problems tend to be is elementary...that is what if that person you voted for (in this current election) turns out to be the exact opposite of the person you hoped to "save" the US? Like the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, reasoning. I'am not professing that Obama will run this country into deeper "horsesqueeze" (thanks, MrNixxon)...than it already has been destroyed in many variations, but I wonder if we have ANY person qualified? Listen. What would happen if this occurred? Hillary Clinton writes her name on the ballots for the final Presidential election. She did it at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton's state delegate votes were catching up with Obama, and if Clinton had not conceded all her votes, and the remainding state delegate votes for Obama, then she, herself, would most likely had enough votes to clinch the candidacy. I was not for Clinton at all. In fact, personally, I was vouching for Obama to beat her, anyway. McCain was not even on my mind! But now, my thoughts have turned towards "who is most-qualified to run the US, with experience"? Hillary Clinton; and with the backing of Bill, there we go! Hillary has a health care plan she had been working on for years. I remember sitting right in front of her in the audience with my wife beside me at the University of Maine, when she gave her speech back in the 1990's on her health care reform program. She shook my hand and spoke to me and my wife for a few seconds. But, Bill was President then; although he made mistakes, it was not as critical as Bushs' and his cabinet officials' errors. What choice do we have now? Maybe it is too late, but I will bet you that Hillary's days are not over. Just wait. In four years, she will most definitely win the Presidency...and I just may vote in that election to vote her in at that time. I'am not voting in November '08. I will not hold myself in any way responsible as to what might happen.

To lmashouwak: You certainly have the right to vote for who you wish, and for whatever reasons. But to claim that a vote for McCain is a vote for hatred? I have to say, at least he tried to reign this attitude in somewhat. You're basically calling all republicans unbalanced lunatics, blind followers of a new Hitler. My wife has been receiving forwarded emails from diehard liberals, written by Tim Wise, an 'anti-racism' activist, who, by his very nature, is extremely rascist against whites. Perhaps due to the fact he, himself, is white, one would argue that he can't possibly be rascist, but he most certainly is, devoting much time to bashing Gov Palin and her whole family. And, these particular Maine liberals have bought into this way of thinking, and exhibit a level of hate that I've never seen before. Sen Obama not inciting hate? How about the ads, broadcasted in spanish, where McCain and his 'buddy' Rush calling all mexicans stupid and lazy, and telling them to go home. Are you saying this ad wasn't crafted solely to promote racial anger? Again, I respect your decision to vote, and vote for whomever you wish, but please, don't accuse one side of 'lunacy', without realizing fully that both sides are out of line. The only way we can defeat 'hate' is for ourselves to stop hating first.

John, I wasn't connecting Sen. Obama to slaves, I was connecting our present beef burguignon cheesing up to the weathly to the bologna slap down kick in the face give up your $40.35 daily paycheck to the man insult of our national avarice. English tudor homes have their plumbing and electrical trenches dug by day laborers just like the rest. Day laborers are given a ticket with their names on it when they are sent out on a job. On the back of the ticket is a contract which the straw boss must sign for the laborers to get paid. By signing the ticket, the straw boss can be sued if he or she hires one of the day laborers within 180 days. At least the slaves had room and board and clothing, even when their was no work.

And ckc1996: Yes the free market did cause the current credit crisis. The same things happened with laissez-faire causing the great depression and deregulation in the savings and loan crisis in 1987. Free marketers sell the lie and people buy it in good times without learning from history. So we are doomed to repeat it.